Rock Band designer quits for hands-on work

A senior lead designer has departed from his high-ranking job at Harmonix to pursue a grass-roots job at indie outfit Twisted Pixel.

Dan Teasdale has helped build the trio of Rock Band games after working for the likes of Irrational Games and now-defunct EA outfit Pandemic.

His rise up the ladder saw him become a central lead designer on the Rock Band 3 project, but after a period of reflection Teasdale decided break free from managerial work and return to his design roots.

”I want to be able to help drive the vision and direction of a game,” he wrote on his personal blog, “but at the same time be hands-on and physically implement and iterate on the low level of making games in a more substantial way time affords me when working as a lead on multi-hundred person titles.”

Teasdale now joins Twisted Pixel – the Texas based indie studio responsible for The Maw, ‘Splosion Man, and as yet unreleased project Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley.

“It's the holy grail of game design positions,” said Teasdale. “I'll get to contribute and help drive the direction of a well-funded and supported new title with a close-knit superteam, while at the same time being hands on and able to directly impact all aspects of the game.

“I'm sure new achievements will spawn and complete that I didn't even know about while I'm there, and I know we'll be making some amazing and memorable games, but that's not the only goal anymore.

“I'll be too busy having fun working on awesome new games, learning a whole new set of ways to make said awesome games, eating breakfast tacos, and never shovelling snow ever again to notice.”